The color of the world's oceans will change from here to 2100. How exactly and why?

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Global warming will bring about a gradual change in the color of the planet's oceans. This is stated in a new study published in Nature Communications.

The increase in temperature will affect phytoplankton and marine organisms, whose interaction with sunlight stains the water of one color or another.

Gradually, these microorganisms will be less important and by about 2100, about 50% of the global ocean will significantly change its color.

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Phytoplankton play an extremely important role in the life of the ocean.

It not only assimilates solar radiation during photosynthesis, but it is also the bottom link in the food chain.

Phytoplankton also affect how we perceive water. The more it is, the less it looks blue.

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The ocean, which will change in the next few decades, will be darker and darker.

However, in separate areas close to the poles and Ecuador, it can be colored in greenish color. This is due to the fact that some species of phytoplankton will still react well to the rise in temperature.

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Previous studies had predicted a reduction in the amount of phytoplankton due to global warming. According to scientists, the purpose of this new work is to try to simulate the impact it will have on the color of the ocean.

"We found that the color was going to change – it's likely you can not see it with your own eyes, but satellite sensors are going to fix it." said Stephanie Dutkevich, Ph.D., of the Massachusetts University of Technology, one of the authors of the study.

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"These changes will be enough to affect the entire phytoplankton-dependent food chain, will be one of the alarm signals, I'll tell you how much we have changed the ecology of the world's oceans, "she adds.

These changes, according to the authors, are currently taking place, whereas they should only appear in the second half of the century. In their calculations, scientists assumed that by the mid-2100s, the average temperature of the planet would increase by three degrees Celsius – the most likely scenario, according to them.

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